It Gets (So Much) Better
by abbzeh
Summary: Kurt meets his future self and gets a few reassurances / brief Klaine


___A/N: So kids, I got bored and wrote a thing. I hope it's okay._

* * *

Arms aching and a twinge beginning to go up his back, Kurt collapsed onto the nearest bench, watching Mercedes glance over her shoulder at him in concern every so often as she hurried away with Tina to get to the last shop before they closed. He closed his eyes, internally wincing at the pain that shot down his arm from his shoulder – probably the result of that day's first locker slam. The voices of the people rushing around him, mostly paying him no mind, washed over him.

'Anyone sitting here?' a voice asked, suddenly bringing him out of his reverie. He opened his eyes and looked to the side, seeing a guy standing there, hands in his pockets and hoodie clinging to his frame like a second skin.

'No, go ahead,' Kurt replied, gesturing vaguely at the spot next to him, and the guy slowly sat down, reaching into a pocket and bringing out a tiny notebook and pen. As Kurt watched the people around him again, he occasionally heard the scribblings of pen on paper, and couldn't help but glance over in curiosity every now and then.

There was something familiar about the guy, Kurt came to realise the more he kept looking over. He couldn't put his finger on what it was, though. There was something in the way he sat, the way he positioned himself and even the way he wrote that seemed to ring a bell in Kurt's mind. And then the guy looked over, letting Kurt see his face properly for the first time, and he scooted backwards in shock.

He was looking at himself, somehow – an older version, all sharp angles and taller and a hell of a lot more muscled than he was now. Kurt sucked in a breath to try and calm himself down, closing his eyes for a second. When he opened them again, everyone around them was gone, and it took him a minute to realise that they weren't in the mall anymore. This really wasn't helping his impending freak out. Kurt looked over at who he presumed was himself, eyes wide.

'You're me,' he blurted out, feeling stupid the second the words left his mouth. The other guy just smiled and nodded, bringing his hand up towards his hair to sweep his bangs back in a familiar gesture. Kurt found himself smiling back for a second.

'I suppose I am,' he said nonchalantly with a small shrug and wow even his voice was different to Kurt's. 'A future you, anyway. So in a way I am you, but not quite you.'

Kurt tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. 'How do I know that you're not a figment of my imagination?' he asked, the question coming out more accusatory than he'd planned it to.

Future!Kurt shrugged again, smiling at him. 'You don't,' he said simply, bringing his hands up in a weird gesture. 'Maybe you made me up in an attempt to convince yourself that everything gets better.' Kurt looked down at the ground, noting the ground definitely wasn't the mall floor. 'Maybe I am real, and I'm here to talk.' He shrugged again, still smiling. 'Who knows?'

Kurt looked his apparent future self up and down, taking in the brightness in his eyes, the quite frankly amazing hair (and mentally thanking his future self for taking care of his hair), the casual clothes and the relaxed posture and said quietly, 'What if I want you to be real?'

'Then I am real,' Future!Kurt said simply, turning around on the bench to face Kurt and sitting on one leg. 'Let's talk,' he said, bringing his hands down on his thighs with a loud smack. 'Why do you want me to be real?' he asked gently, leaning forward slightly to look into Kurt's eyes. Not probing, just genuine curiosity and a hint of knowing.

'It's just...' Kurt trailed off, not knowing how to phrase the thousand million things running through his head, sighing and shaking his head to try and clear his thoughts. 'It's nice to know that I got out. That I survived,' he added with a wistful smile, and Future!Kurt nodded knowingly.

'You feel like you're not going to, don't you?' Future!Kurt asked gently, his voice quiet and slightly sad. 'You feel like everything is hopeless, and the bullying and the stress of Dad's heart attack and the apparent obliviousness of your friends to the problems are going to cause the world to collapse on you.' Kurt looked down again, chest constricting painfully at hearing everything just spelled out in a single sentence. Future!Kurt didn't say anything for a minute, and when Kurt looked up at him, he was looking into the distance, expression absent.

'Where are we?' Kurt asked in an attempt to steer his mind away from Future!Kurt's last words, looking around. There were a few benches dotted around the place, a several dozen trees that seemed to be frozen in place.

'Technically, nowhere. We're between timelines,' Future!Kurt answered absently, finger stroking back and forth over one hand as he turned to look at Kurt again. 'But if you want to put a label on it, we're in Central Park. Inside a memory.'

'But I've never been to Central Park,' Kurt pointed out with a frown, head tilting to the side when Future!Kurt just smiled at him like he knew something that Kurt didn't.

Well, Kurt supposed he did. He was his future self, after all. Allegedly.

'It's my memory,' Future!Kurt said with a blissful looking smile. His expression melted into something a bit more serious whilst still retaining the gentility, somehow. 'I know you've heard these words a thousand times from Dad and everyone in Glee Club,' he began, voice more serious and slightly understanding, 'but trust me when I say that it gets better.'

'Wait, I go to New York?' Kurt suddenly asked, his brain only just catching up with what Future!Kurt said, eyes widening as he stared at him.

'You move to New York,' Future!Kurt confirmed with a small smile. 'You get into your dream school, you work at a dream job.'

And when Future!Kurt lifted a hand to brush some stray hairs out of his eyes, Kurt noticed the ring.

'What's that?' he asked, pointing at the offending hand. He narrowed his eyes as he took a closer look at it, then looked up at Future!Kurt in shock. 'You're engaged?'

Future!Kurt looked down at it with a laugh that sounded breathless, giddy and happy all at once, looking back up at him with bright eyes. 'Yeah,' he said with another breathless laugh, folding his hands in his lap. 'That's – he's – one of the main reasons why it gets better,' he added with a small smile.

'But – I – who is it? Do I know him? When will I meet him?' Kurt fired at his future self, unable to stop himself from asking question after question. A mad sort of desperation ran through his head, the need to know, the validation of this amazing future being real and not totally made up.

'Spoilers,' Future!Kurt said with a small smirk, tapping the side of his nose. The smirk softened into something more gentle again. 'You're going to meet him soon,' he said, smiling wistfully at some memory. Kurt partially wished that their surroundings would change to match whichever memory Future!Kurt was thinking of. 'You're going to be best friends, and loving him – being loved by him – will feel like the sweetest. the most intense and the greatest thing in the world, all at the same time.' Future!Kurt paused, smiling at another memory. 'Nothing else compares. And you've got all of that to come.'

Seeing his future self smile that way, so obviously in love, made Kurt smile as well. Future!Kurt reached into a pocket and brought out a phone, and looked up at Kurt with another smile. 'That's my time.'

'But how will I know who he is?' Kurt couldn't help but ask, even as the park around them was beginning to fade away.

'You'll just know,' Future!Kurt replied, standing up and shoving his hands in his pockets. As the background continued to fade away, as Future!Kurt continued to fade, he said, 'It gets so much better,' one last time, before fading completely.

Kurt blinked, and he suddenly found himself sitting exactly where he'd been before, shopping bags around him and people still hurrying here and there. He shook his head to clear it of the fuzziness, and glanced next to him. The guy from before was gone. Something tugged at Kurt's mind, an echo of a memory, but all he could find was some comforting presence, an echo of reassurance.

He looked up when he heard Mercedes and Tina calling him, and he went to join them to get something to eat.

* * *

The next day, as Kurt slowly made his way down the gorgeous staircase and trying to avoid the sea of blazer-clad boys, Kurt looked around at Dalton. The place was stunning, so much so that Kurt couldn't believe that it was even a school, and one that existed in Ohio of all places. As more boys continued to rush past him, he began to worry slightly. He had no idea where he was going, since Puck's genius plan to spy hadn't included a map, and on an impulse, he reached out and tapped the shoulder of the nearest student.

'Excuse me? Hi, can I ask you a question? I'm new here,' he said in a nervous rush, watching as the boy turned around and locked eyes with Kurt, eyes wide. Kurt fought to contain the growing blush because seriously, he was attractive. _So_ attractive.

'My name's Blaine,' the boy said, holding out a hand. Kurt hesitated, concentrating on breathing because _a boy was actually offering to shake his hand_, and reached out a hand and shook it.

'Kurt,' he said in return with a smile, and all at once, it was like something just clicked into place as their hands touched.

_Oh. There you are._

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_A/N: So, did it turn out okay? Please review, it would mean a hell of a lot :)_


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